Hannah

This book was so emotionally difficult for me to read yet so worth pushing through to reach the conclusion. There are so many scenes that will live in my head forever. It was a non-stop testosterone-packed rollercoaster that starts with Darrow being tortured and kept in a box by the Jackal for a year and spins into a series of battles and incredibly hard choices that show how there are no clear-cut good guys and bad guys when it comes to war. Each choice makes you question how to balance ideals with the cost of making those ideals a reality.“How many mothers have prayed to see their sons, their daughters return from war only to realize the war has kept them, the war has poisoned them, and they'll never be the same?” There was so much emotion because these characters are unbelievably real. Over three books, you love them and know them deeply. I had to stop reading for a week after Ragnar died. They are imperfect and morally grey and packed with breathless courage and reckless stupidity, selflessness and greed. Pierce captures the worst and best of humanity in every character. Forever a Howler <3Ragnar's Death“I will give Eo your love. I will make a house for you in the Vale of your fathers. It will be besides my own...“Ragnar and Darrows' friendship was a symbol of hope and change. Ragnar himself became a good and inspiring man. This made his death extra heartbreaking, it felt like a loss of hope. But he died reunited with his sister. He died a free man and a hero to his people. He died with the message to his people that they could be more than war and violence. Roque's DeathI will never stop wishing that Roque could have been different. His death broke Darrow's heart because Darrow never let go of his friendship, even through torture and attempted murder. I struggled with this tendency at first, but I think it demonstrated Darrow's ability to see multiple viewpoints and his ability to love unconditionally.The Mob and The Hanging“My name is Sevo Au Barca, and I am a murderer. And what do we do to murderers?”For me, this is the most poignant scene of the book, I can't stop thinking about it. Darrow's uncle is murdered by the Jackal and it leads to a fracturing of the rebellion's forces as low colors begin killing golds on their own side of the war. Darrow and Sevro get there just as Cassius is to be executed by the mob. Sevro breaks to the front and claims Cassius as his property because Cassius murdered his father. He announces to the crowd that Cassius is a murderer, yelling “...and what do we do to murderers?” before dropping Cassius to hang as the mob cheers. Then he lists how many people he, their leader, has killed. The mob cheers again as he counts off how many golds and other colors he's killed. But they begin screaming when he repeats “...and what do we do to murderers?” before putting the rope around his own neck and jumping. WOW. The power of that repeated phrase and the way it broke through the mindlessness of mob mentality. I was so proud of Sevro in that moment.The Final StandThe way my heart stopped when I thought Sevro had been murdered by Cassius and they were defeated. This was such a powerful ending because it's often seen as a weakness that Darrow won't give up on his friends even when they betray him. When Cassius kills Sevro, you think that has caused his downfall. But then the twist - Cassius and Darrow reveal that they are working together and Sevro's alive. We see that Darrow's ability to keep loving his friends and show mercy is his strength in this rebellion. 

If your heart beats like a drum and your legs a little wet, it's because the Reapers come to collect a little debt

The world and background were well done for a YA novel, and the plot and characters were just my type. It was fun to feel the same way about the Shepard King that our heroine Elspeth feels - this weird mix of affection and hate, connection and resentment. I have a soft spot for morally grey characters, and he is that. Elspeth is one of my most liked heroines in recent reads. I thought she had a strong mind to coexist with a 500-year-old nightmare king who thought himself a monster and was ravenous for revenge.

Be wary, be clever, be good

I'm not sure how I ended up reading a Christmas romance in February, but I'm glad I did! This is now one of my new favorite romances.

The angst level due to miscommunication is low and short-lived, so I could reread this without anxiety. The friendship between Luka and Stella is lovely and believable. The author doesn't just say “friends to lovers” and leave it at that. We get slow peeks into their decade of friendship and we understand Stella's fear of abandonment that has caused her to deny her love for Luka. I love love love their relationship and all the side characters and the small town this is set in.“And isn't it silly to love the way someone's things look like next to yours? Little bits and pieces of lives in parallel.”“I recognize the sadness in her words, the loneliness of remembering someone all by yourself.”“I like the sound of her settling against me.”

The first time I tried to read It Happened One Summer, I DNF'd it a few pages in because I could not stand Piper or her family. She seemed to be a very stereotypical portrayal of a rich LA influencer, and I hated it. Then, I read a review that compared Piper to Alexis Rose from Schitt's Creek. After going back in with that mindset, I grew to adore this romance. It was heartwarming with a beautiful setting and major found-family vibes. There was minimal internal conflict once the characters got together, and the conflict that did occur did not drag on for too long. And I got to watch Piper evolve into someone I actually liked. Once outside the influence of the rich and famous, her kindness shines through. She befriends everyone around her, welcomes her Grandmother into her life with open arms, and helps an older man up to his favorite perch every day. By the end of this book, she turns into a pretty cool person.

I was done after the first time Mercy said “Nuzzle Nook”. I liked the premise - a land in between worlds called Tanria where drudges live. Hart is a marshal patrolling the land to secure the border.

I liked the time span of this story. Ari and Josh have a series of random run-ins over several years and - though they go from a strong dislike to friendship to love - it takes them much longer to grow into the right partner for the other. Ari has to face her fear of fully loving someone and grapple with what she wants from her life. Josh has to put aside his ego and build a life outside of his career failure without pinning it all on Ari. By the time they finally fall in love, you've seen so many different sides and phases of these two people.“Somewhere in that mass of people dressed in colorful outfits is a man wearing a dark hat and jacket, reading a sloppily dictated love declaration. It's either the beginning of a love story or the moment she'll be narrating to therapists for years to come.”

A fantasy with dark academia vibes featuring a cast of villains and at least one serial killer. I loved the dynamic between Victor and Eli and found their differing reactions to their powers (and the monsters within them) fascinating. 

By the time the first bell rang... he'd turned his parents' lectures on how to start the day into: Be lost. Give up. give in. in the end it would be better to surrender before you begin. Be lost. be lost. And then you will not care if you are ever found.

The premise is cute and interesting. An angel falls because they question whether all the rules in heaven are truly the right way to live. Another angel contracts them to tempt a human woman who never sins into small temptations. I loved that the fallen angel ended up as a high school therapist, I wish that would've been a larger focus of the plot. The actual execution was slow and repetitive. There are only so many times that I can watch a problem be solved with chocolate. The romance felt forced and lacked chemistry. Also, I know the teenage niece was being constantly tempted by a demon meant to bring about the apocalypse so I'll give her slack, but even with that factor did she have to be so unlikable?

I was really happy to discover this author. She had a whole other career before writing and publishing her first novel at 50, calling these books her “Triumphant Second Act.” How inspiring is that?

This story is quirky and beautiful and is a must-read for when you need a reason to love and believe in humanity. There are strong found-family vibes between this group of commuters from different backgrounds and ages who find what they need in each other.The end of the book, with Bea and Iona dancing together, brought me to tears. It was both happy and oh-so bittersweet.“She'd been the proof that he'd made it, the icing on the cake of his new, impressive life. and now the icing had solidified in the life he was no longer sure he wanted.”“Sometimes when you put two very different whole people together, a kind of magic, an alchemy occurs. Bea said that I was like eggs and sugar and she was flour and butter, and when you mixed us together, we were more than just the combination of our ingredients, we were the whole damn cake. And the problem is, when you're used to being a magnificent, mouthwatering cake, it's really hard to get used to being just eggs and sugar once more.”“I realized I'd mistaken control for love.”“There were, Iona had learned, some problems that you really couldn't solve. You just had to find a way to live with them. And if Bea could no longer join her in Iona's world, then she would join Bea in hers.”

The second book is even wilder than the first. Darrow is out of the institute, but the challenges and power struggles are nowhere close to over. He now serves the man who ordered the execution of his wife, the father of the gold woman he's growing to love. Darrow struggles to navigate this world of greed and power without becoming a monster himself.The betrayal by Darrow's poet friend Roque broke my heart, but I loved the deepening of his relationships with Sevro and Mustang and the new friendship with Ragnar. I love Ragnar so much. I loved watching his transformation when Darrow finally treated him as a man, an equal. It made me love Darrow even with all his struggles to be a good friend and good leader. 

This was so charming. Dora and Elias come together mainly because she's the only person besides his best friend Albert whom he can't drive away. Half of Dora's soul was stolen by a fae lord when she was a child and now it's rather hard to ruffle her feathers. This allows her to get past the shield of uncouthness Elias puts up for the gentry, and she sees the virtuous layers underneath. He similarly goes from a dispassionate fascination at her predicament to a genuine love for her kindness, compassion, and wit. Oh regency romance. Apart from wanting Dora to feel happiness, I actually like her the way she is with her 1/2 soul.

As a GoodReads reviewer said it first:

I am now traumatized with the word knot.

I thought the last 25% fell a bit flat and things got weird (see knots), but reading was still a good time.